You Fill Up My Senses (Psalm 94:9; 139:7)

 You Fill Up My Senses (Psalm 94:9; 139:7)

John Denver used to sing a song, “You Fill Up My Senses.” Given his vocal qualities, we used to substitute the word “sinuses.” But, speaking of our senses, they are amazing. Our ears hear and distinguish hundreds of sounds. A child can pick up his mother’s voice out of a thousand. And our eyes, seeing objects both near and far, with color. Sadly, we don’t fully appreciate these senses until we lose them. 

But we must remember: God made us this way. He made us with ears and eyes, to hear and to see. Why? Partly because He Himself is a hearing and seeing God. And that’s what this week’s critical question(s) remind us:  Psa. 94:9 “He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see?” And we find this ability of God to hear and to see both comforting and intimidating, because He doesn’t miss a beat.

But let’s go further: Psa. 139:7 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” Here we find that this God who created us to live in the confines of space and time is not confined to space and time. The previous verse spoke of communicable attributes, that is, characteristics that God shares with His creatures. But here, in Psa. 139, we have an incommunicable attribute, that is, a characteristic of God that is not shared with His creatures. We are always somewhere, in one place. God is everywhere at once. He is omnipresent. Again, this is a comforting though, since we are never removed from Him. And it can be intimidating, because we never can hide from Him.

For the godly person, that is, a person who is oriented toward God in such a way that He is ever-present (or, at least, never-far) from our thoughts, the responses to these verses are obvious. God hears. We talk to Him. God sees. We live and behave and do as those who are living for His pleasing, knowing that God is always looking over our shoulder. We bask in His ever-present presence, because He is never far away. Though transcendent above even the remote stars in the most remote galaxy, He is yet present with a person such as yourself.

For the ungodly person, that is, a person who is oriented toward self and world affairs in such a way that it seems that God either doesn’t exist, or, at least, matter - for that person, there is no prayer except in a crisis. Things are done for one’s own pleasure or the praise of those you want to notice. No one is looking over your shoulder, or if they are, you resent them. And, you find yourself quite alone in the cosmos.